Why We Fly

Son becomes mom's flight instructor

At some point, every child and parent has dreamed about what it would be like to trade roles--parents with hopes that their children would get a glimpse of what it's like to pour every ounce of one's being into teaching and nurturing young ones into independent adults; and children who would like to tell mom and dad what to do.

For four months in 2006, Lucia Geraci and her son Phil traded places, so to speak, when Phil, 27, assumed the nurturing role as Lucia's flight instructor. From July to November, Lucia trained with her son at Trenton Mercer Airport in Trenton, New Jersey. "You spend years raising a child," the mother of five said, "and then he's teaching me!"

Lucia had started and stopped flight training a few times over a 10-year period and even played an influential role in drawing Phil into aviation. She had taken her son, then a high-school junior, on one of her flight lessons. He was hooked but didn't pursue flying as a career for about five years. Once he did, Lucia encouraged him throughout the process.

After Phil became a certificated flight instructor in 2005, Lucia decided she would finish up flight training with her son. This time, she said that she had the motivation to complete it--she didn't want to disappoint him.

She had more obstacles than many to get back into aviation. Lucia, who had been a marathon runner and participated in several Boston Marathons and two Olympic Trials, had to get a pacemaker three years ago because her resting heart rate was too low. Consequently, she lost her medical certificate and had to go through several medical tests and jump through the FAA's regulatory hoops to get it back. Then she had to study again for her private pilot knowledge test, which had expired.

Nearly every weekend, the dedicated mom/student drove 90 minutes one way from her home in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, to Trenton, New Jersey, where her son worked. She stayed with her newlywed son and daughter-in-law and was never late for a lesson. "That's his livelihood. He works really hard," Lucia said, explaining why it was important to be punctual. "It's like not showing up for a dentist appointment. It's just wrong."

The bond between mother and son helped the two communicate better than many student-instructor pairs. Lucia said she understood Phil's teaching style, while Phil said his mother wasn't as timid as most students to point out what did or didn't work for her.

"I think I exasperated Phil with my [radio] communication," Lucia said. His advice mirrored what parents often remind their children: "He'd always say, 'Mom, slow down and think about it.'"

"It was definitely a reversal," Phil said. Whenever he'd find out that Lucia was running errands for other family members, he'd remind her, "You need to be at home studying."

During Lucia's checkride, Phil got another glimpse at parenting. He paced around the office and admits that while he had no doubts about her ability to fly, he was more nervous than usual when his students take checkrides. "I knew she would do fine," he said, "but I just wanted her to come back and show me her certificate."

"I can't tell you how many times I had worried about him," Lucia said, recalling the times she had paced back and forth as a parent wondering about her son.

Since Lucia earned her private pilot certificate in November, she and Phil have continued to fly together. In January, they flew a Cessna 182 from Reading, Pennsylvania, to Ashville, Alabama, for aerobatic training at Greg Koontz Aerobatics. They were the first mother-son pair to train there.

When they fly together, Phil said he tries to remember that Lucia is a private pilot now, and he refrains from coaching--a problem similar to what many parents struggle with: letting go.

Alyssa J. Miller is an associate editor for AOPA's electronic publications.